Cabrillo Con

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Convention
Name: Cabrillo Con
Dates: 2005-2013
Frequency: every two years
Location: Michigan, USA
Type: fan con
Focus: Starsky & Hutch
Organization: Cabrillo State Press
Founder:
Founding Date: 2005
URL: organizers website, no mention of the convention (archived) & 2009 Convention Page (archived)
2005-2011 convention logos
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Cabrillo Con was a gen Starsky & Hutch fan-run convention that was held every two years in Michigan. It was organized by Cabrillo State Press.

In the flyer for the first convention held in 2005 the organizers stated the focus of their convention:

You might be asking, "why another Starsky and Hutch Con?" There are already several successful conventions that have been around a lot longer. As we made the plans to propose this Con, one thing we didn’t want to do was compete with the other conventions. We’re grateful that they exist and are very appreciative of the part they’ve played in keeping the fandom alive for many, many years. It all boils down to a matter of preference. While we respect others’ views on the subject of slash in the fandom, we know there are many who would prefer to participate in a "gen-focused" event. Although both gen and slash fans are welcome and encouraged to attend, this Con will feature only gen materials, art, zines, and memorabilia. All discussion panels will focus on gen topics. By the same token, no slash-bashing will be condoned.

Attendees at the convention participate in panels, organize social outings, watch episodes of Starsky & Hutch on a big screen, a vid show, and a Saturday night fan written and produced skit where the convention's tongue in cheek Striped Tomato Awards are announced. In 2009, the "Not Ready for Cabrillo Con" Players presented the "World's Worst Fanfic Skit: Marrying Mary Sue."

In addition to the 3 day event, the convention also publishes a commemorative fanzine Cabrillo Con Zine with fan fiction submitted by attendees and supporters.

In March 2015, the event organizers announced that they would no longer be organizing the convention.

2005 Convention

2005 Convention website Screenshot, click for larger image

Cabrillo Con 2005 was held on August 4-7, 2005 in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Registration included

  • Thursday night welcome party
  • Friday night pizza party (pizza, breadsticks and soda)
  • Welcome packet with special commemorative program and S&H collectibles
  • Access to all on-site events (panels, games, door prizes, vendors, episode- viewing parties, etc.)

Con Events:

  • Panel discussions for both the writer and the fan:
  • Medical and first aid—how real does it need to be?
  • Editing and beta reading
  • H/C in the fandom. Why we like it, and how much is too much?
  • Watching episodes and song vids together, projected on a large screen with theater-style seating S&H games and prizes
  • Special theme party - Songs, skits and awards
  • Vendors with S&H memorabilia and collectibles, as well as a time and place to "swap, share & sell"
2005 convention logo

In 2005, Flamingo posted the following convention report which is publicly archived here:

If anyone needed a long weekend with her favorite boys in a great hotel,

it was *me*! I couldn't wait to get on the road. I love road trips under most conditions, but knowing I had 3 days of S&H fun at the end of the drive was added incentive. I've known sister SH fan Donna for quite a while through email, but we'd never actually met. I'm sure she probably had a little apprehension about the trip--15 hours alone in a van with a big pink bird?--but she bravely tosser her things into my Town and Country and off we went. Within minutes we knew we were destined to be great traveling buddies. All our favorite personal stories were new to each other and we had plenty of time to share them. We laughed a lot, shared some personal history, the good and the bad, talked fannish stuff, and bonded all the way to Grand Rapids Michigan. The Patron Saint of Good Hotels must've been traveling with us too, since we had terrific accommodations through the whole thing.

When we arrived in Grand Rapids, there was quite a gathering of fen just waiting to meet us at the door. It was great meeting the con organizers--some of whom I'd met before and some who were destined to be new friends. They acted like our showing up was doing *them* a favor, but I was there to enjoy an S&H con *I* didn't have to organize, and they didn't disappoint! The "goodie" bag they'd prepared was beautiful in its craftsmanship and yummy in its contents. We got "Huggy Bear" cookies, red and white M&Ms (chocolate *and* peanut) a picture disk, a sound disk, keychain and fridge magnets! Plus the con book was positively gorgeous, with a beautiful collage picture on the front, stories inside and photocopied "welcome" notes from Paul, David, and Bernie Hamilton! A treasure! There was also another photo as a memento from the con that was wonderful. And all of that was just registration!

The hotel was great. I wanted to pack it up and take it back to Maryland to have the next SHareCon in. It was a gorgeous Best Western, with a beautiful pool and a large gathering area near the pool with a huge skylight over that whole area, so it was like being outside while being inside. Many of us had "poolside" rooms. I did and I loved it. The rooms were spacious, clean, and had refrigerators and coffee makers.

The meeting space was terrific -- we had an ampitheatre at the last SHareCon, which sat 110, but the seats were very narrow and the room long and narrow, the stage tiny. It was fine, but this hotel had a conference/theatre room that held 100 (I think, not sure) and the seats were wide and generous and cushioned, and the room was wider than long which was a much more comfortable and more intimate set up. Did I mention that I loved this hotel? I wanted to live there by the time the con was over.

The food was good, and after awhile I felt like I was on a cruise. Every time I turned around the con was feeding us. We had a luau (sp?) Thursday night with dips and munchies and fruit and little hot dogs and more things than I could've possibly eaten. Breakfast and lunch were buffets with a huge variety of choices, and I felt like every time I took a breath it was time to snack! Yeah, fan heaven. There was a pizza party Friday night and brownies and cake during the swap meet, and a banquet Saturday night. There was Cracker Jack popcorn during episodes. There was lots of food. <burp> I ate a lot. :-) Not only did they keep feeding us, but at the pizza party and then again at the banquet we all got these small *framed* pictures of the boys at our place settings that we got to *keep*. I arrived late for the banquet as I was still getting my talk all lined up, so I got the last vacant seat. Sitting at my place setting was this framed picture of the boys as they are now, shoulder to shoulder, looking sexy and great and modern. It's one of my favorite pics. One of the girls teased me, "You're the last one here, so you get the old guys." I assured her I would've traded any of the other terrific pics of the younger boys for this one. It was my favorite. I treasure it. She gave me a big smile when I said that.

The panels were really good. We talked a lot about writing. There was a panel on editing that Barb D. who edits for the slash virtual season among many other projects ran. During that panel some newer fans asked about and talked about their apprehensions about opening themselves up to criticism and those of us who've been around for awhile were able to give them advice on how to get to the point where you ready for that, how to distance yourself enough from the personal effort of producing a story that means so much to you. Another panel given by Brit showed us how fight scenes are staged on theatre and TV. Brit did a terrific demonstration step by step, finishing up with giving Sue (The Blintz) some very realistic looking "punches" and "slaps" -- it was fascinating to watch how that's staged. This was part of the panel on writing action scenes, something I've never felt I was very good at. It brought up the whole point of view issue and that was a well received discussion.

Kati talked about fanon vs canon, always an interesting topic. There were a number of very new fans there and many of these terms were unknown to them, as were the actual canon facts. Sue and another con committee member (it's late and my brain just dried up and her name just vaporized out of my consciousness...urg! So Sorry) gave a great talk on medical realism and how to find information to make your hurt/comfort plausible and realistic without going over the top.

I had been asked to give a talk on the history of SH fandom (the con organizers had the mistaken notion that I actually knew something about this topic. Luckily, I had lots of friends in the fandom who actually did and they saved my butt on the[ prep on this talk.) I was afraid the talk would be kind of dry and boring but everyone said they got a lot out of it, but this was the most polite group of fans I've ever met!!! ;-) Seriously, I felt very honored to be asked to speak and found it interesting that they were curious about what has happened in the fandom throughout its history. Many of the fans who were there were somewhat new and many of the others had come in through the internet after TNT started rerunning the show in the mid-90's so really didn't know much about what had come before.

We played some fun games, most of which, as usual, I didn't know a damned thing about but got involved in anyway. You should've seen my face while playing S&H Taboo with Donna when she said (trying to get me to say "Terror on the Docks" -- "You know, when you're really, really scared and you have to get on a boat." Listen, you all know I don't test well.... No, we didn't win. I think we came in second. One of the funniest things we did was during the luau. They staged the Cabrillo cockroach race with these large plastic wind up cockroaches that ran all around the place once they started to unwind. You had to steer them with drinking straws, but of course, they completely ignored you and would run backwards, forwards, around and around, in the wrong lane, totally out of control. Typically, my cockroach got into a romantic tryst with one of the other cockroaches and even though I kept telling him it wasn't that kind of con, I couldn't keep his (her? its?) mind on the job. It just kept jumping this other roach, which somehow, in spite of my roach's interference, managed to win anyway. No, we didn't win that one either. I laughed so much I think I wet myself!

They gave out terrific awards at this con! They were called the Striped Tomato awards, and they were made from a life-size glass tomato (a lovely thing, really) which had a Torino white stripe lovingly painted on it and coated with crystal glitter. The striped tomato was then glued into an attractive ceramic vase. It's a beautiful thing! The awards were given out for a variety of funny and serious reasons -- best dressed at the con (most SH wear), funniest saying, stuff like that. It was great fun. I was very, very touched when I was voted an award for "contributions to the fandom." That was really sweet; I was really touched. I felt it only appropriate that I do the Sally Fields, "You *like* me, you really *like* me," speech as I accepted my honor.

Kassidy Rae had been kind enough to send her newest vid, "Drive My Car" to the con and it was received very well, as it should be. It was terrific! Some of the fans here had never seen any song vids and had no idea what they were. They also got to see some Beth Cambre's vids, too. It was fun to be with some of them as they discovered this form of fandom expression for the first time.

Oh, man, there was so much going on...what else happened...there was a Pink Flamingo sale going on at a nearby plant store that I took advantage of, and ended up with a pink flamingo that lights up that became the unofficial con mascot.

The swap meet was fun and I managed to snag a rare copy of a "Here Comes the Brides" Tie-in novel, and a photo or two I'd never seen before. I'd dragged a lot of my clippings and scrapbooks to the con and people enjoyed looking through those.

There was an auction that benefited PAF and the con that did very well. I'd brought a few items from SHareCon that hadn't sold there and they found loving homes at the auction.

One of the best parts of the con for me was that I actually got time to sit and chat with many of the fans who attended. This is something I rarely get to do at SHareCon except at 3 or 4 in the morning with the die-hard night owls since that's often the only time I have available since I'm usually dealing with problems and other con issues during the con itself. Barb D. and I had wanted to sit and talk at SHareCon and never could find the moment. At Cabrillo we had leisure time to sit and catch up and discuss some issues we'd wanted to explore in person. It was great.

Everyone* at the con was warm and welcoming and treated me practically like a visiting dignitary! I knew that I was among friends--good friends--from the moment I crossed the threshold. I was also happy to discover that there were quite a few fen at the con that I knew very well and were already good friends I'd spent plenty of time with at other cons--SHareCon, Zcon, and Connexions. We got to spent lots of quality time with each other and include new folks I didn't know in the mix. I introduced the term "bifictional" at the con, which got a good laugh, and there were a number of con folk who, like me, read everything in the fandom but never had a term for it before.

I've always said you never have really heard women laugh until you've been to a con, and this one was true to form. After the last couple of months I really need this con and it didn't let me down. I had a *great* time among new and old friends, and was very impressed with the creativity and organization of the con committee -- some of the folks on the committee had never even been to a con, and they brought fresh ideas to the mix. Like most fan gatherings, there was a tremendous amount of creativity and a whole lot of love lavished on the con.

For those of you who had hoped to make it to Cabrillo Con and couldn't due to time or financial constraints, I encourage you to save your pennies now for the next one. This is one party you *don't* want to miss. I'll be there, with bells on. (They got used to all the flamingos -- time to add something new.)

Huge hugs to everyone who had fun at the con with me, and a tremendous

thank you to the con organizers who worked their behinds off making everyone feel at home and making sure everyone had fun. You did an *amazing* job, and I sure hope you plan to do it again.

2007 Convention

2007 convention logo

Video Show Playlist:

Part 1:

Part 2:

2009 Convention

2009 convention t-shirt with the Starsky & Hutch at the movies theme
2009 convention logo

Photos are here [1] Cabrillo Con 2008 was held July 30th through Sunday, August, 2nd 2009 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The theme for the 2009 Cabrillo Con was Starsky & Hutch at the movies.

  • The Cabrill Con convention memory book with includes a dedication to Captain Dobey and the man who brought him to life--Bernie Hamilton
  • Special limited-edition Starsky and Hutch collectibles created just for Cabrillo Con 2009
  • Selected Starsky and Hutch episodes on a full-size movie screen at Grand Rapids own Celebration Cinema, plus popcorn and soda
  • Episodes and song vids projected onto a big-screen TV throughout the weekend
  • A ticket to the Fredrick Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park, including a narrated tram ride through their beautiful grounds
  • Saturday night Movie-themed party, the Striped Tomato Awards, an dessert, along with a very special presentation by Flamingo, and an exclusive Starsky and Hutch convention gift

The fan skit that year featured The "Not Ready for Cabrillo Con" Players in "this year's World's Worst Fanfic Skit "Marrying Mary Sue."

The Striped Tomato Awards:

  • Judy D was named the "Cabrillo Kid" Award for winning the most heats in the cockroach race.
  • Pepper Ckua was acknowledged for her contribution to the S&H fandom for her "Tagging Bay City" project
  • The Judges awarded Judy Too a Striped Tomato Award for "The Best Line of the Con" for when she was playing "Taboo"
  • Madison and Flamingo tied in winning the Striped Tomato Award for "Most Likely to 'Go Out' Reading or Writing Fanfiction"
  • Krissy and Flamingo were both given a "Do or Die" Striped Tomato Award for overcoming several obstacles in order to even get to the convention
  • Starsky's Strut was voted "Most Enthusiastic Convention Attendee"
  • The "Best Dressed" award went to The Blintz for her S&H wear and "judicious use of zebra finery"
2009 Convention Memory page (photos removed for privacy), click for larger image

In 2009, Flamingo posted the following convention report. It is publicly available here.

I'm way behind on reporting in on my trip to Michigan to the fun-filled Cabrillo Con that I attended back in August. (Man, I am WAY late, even for me.) Cabrillo Con is a Gen SH con that is held every other year (opposite the years we have SHareCon) in Grand Rapids, Michigan. For those of us who attend Media West over Memorial Day in Lansing Michigan, Grand Rapids is about an hour away. I'd never been to Grand Rapids, despite going to Media West for a long time, and I must say, the parts of it I saw were lovely.

Cabrillo Con is run by Brit and her group of friends, and they do a fabulous job. I attended the first Cabrillo con in 2005 and had a BALL! I wanted very much to go in 2007, however, a very dear friend decided her daughter's wedding was somehow more important than my SH con and despite my protests, I was obliged to attend the wedding. I'm still complaining about that to her (not that she cares). I really regretted missing that con.

Cabrillo always has lots of games, and they're always fun. They're such fun that I often "borrow" some of them for SHareCon.  ;-) Hey, steal from the best! While I didn't have time to attend many of the games myself this year, the ones I did stay for were lots of fun, fast paced, and creative. I especially love the cockroach races which were, as always, hilarious, with the crazed wind-up cockroaches running in every direction but the correct one while us hapless "jockeys" tried to steer them with drinking straws.

The con gave me an opportunity to room with Pepper, and allowed us to get some serious work done on Pepper's zine compilation project and my archiving project, so we spent more time than I usually do huddled in the room. CC also joined us at the con, and getting to spend special time with these two terrific ladies was wonderful. At SHareCon I rarely have time to socialize as much, so this was a special treat.

We teased the con organizers that it felt like they'd arranged a food event every two hours, which wasn't true, but believe me, we were well fed! We enjoyed a meal at a historic diner (Rosie's of the "quicker picker-upper") and another great meal at Famous Dave's barbeque, and another great meal at a pie place that had terrific food and amazing pies. Real rhubarb pie!

We took a terrific trip to a nearby sculpture garden that was gorgeous with fabulous plantings and wonderful works of art. The tram driver found it fascinating that I was called "Flamingo" and I had to make a quick getaway before I found myself on a date.  :-)

But the most amazing event of the weekend was that the Cabrillo con crew arranged for us to view three SH episodes in an actual theater. That was *amazing*, to see the boys on the really really big screen! I saw things I've never seen before. We'd voted ahead of time on the program and saw The Fix, Coffin for Starsky, and Shootout. We had popcorn and sodas and plushy seats...it was very very special. I fell in love with the guys all over again.

(Prior to the event, Brit took us to a chocolate store -- can you imagine letting 25 adult women loose in a chocolate store all at the same time? We were lucky we ever got out of there!)

I put together a vid show for the con, which everyone liked, and I did two presentations, one on vidding (which still strikes me funny as I know less about this topic than almost anyone else) and one on podfic.

We watched more eps, and ate more food (which was fabulous) and there was some other panels, which I may have missed. We also socialized a lot, and the group that goes to this con are lovely people, we always laugh a lot.

They had a really funny play about Mary Sue that had us in stitches, where everyone trusted Mary Sue instantly and wanted to marry her and have children with her, and she was the third partner. A scream. And two of the gals did a hysterical interpretive dance to the French Starsky & Hutch theme. Bet you didn't know the French *had* a Starsky & Hutch theme of their own. Not only did they make their own theme, they had WORDS to it. While they played the music, Brit read a translation of the French words to their SH theme. It was hilarious!

Oh, don't let me forget about the hotel! The hotel is only 2 years old and was terrific. In fact, the hotel was so new, the GPS device, a Garmin, I had couldn't find the address, and we traveled around lost for awhile. When I wandered into a residential area, I thought the device was going to have a conniption. "Make a U turn now!!!" It was really getting shrill! Once we arrived, it sighed happily, recalculated, and we never had a problem after that.

The beds were excellent, I slept like a baby and my "purring" (what Anne calls my snoring) didn't seem to bother to bother Pepper at all. The bed was so big Pepper kept saying we could fit three more people in there. I think she was lonely...  ;-)

Every room was a suite, so we had a lovely sitting area and plenty of room to spread out the boxes of zines I brought for Pepper to peruse. And peruse she did.

They had a hot breakfast every morning, and a great pool and jacuzzi. What more could you want??? Oh, the free WiFi was nice and the chocolate cookies by the desk didn't hurt either.

All in all, it was a wonderful time, even the trip to and fro was fun (since I'm a crazy person who loves driving). I'll never forget going to the *movies* to see S&H!!! I wanna do that again.

And I'm looking forward to the next Cabrillo Con in 2011.

  • 2009 Program Schedule page 1, click to read

    2009 Program Schedule page 1, click to read

  • 2009 Program Schedule page 2, click to read

    2009 Program Schedule page 2, click to read

2011 Convention

the convention t-shirt
2011 convention logo

The 2011 convention was held July 28-31, 2011 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The convention theme this year was a fictional university college party and was based on a quote from the TV series: ""WELCOME TO CABRILLO STATE" ~ Hutch, Murder Ward."

Registration included

  • A spiral-bound commemorative convention "Yearbook" with new stories submitted by convention attendees and photos, fun facts etc
  • Special limited-edition Starsky and Hutch collectibles created just for Cabrillo Con 2011
  • Thursday night Cabrillo State University-themed welcoming party and registration, complete with a "frat mixer" of sub sandwiches and munchies.
  • four hours of selected Starsky and Hutch episodes on a full-size screen in a private movie theater at Celebration Cinema, plus a medium popcorn and soda
  • Access to all convention events, games, and presentations.
  • Episodes and song vids projected onto a big-screen TV throughout the weekend.
  • Games. From the convention flyer: "Your ticket to play! Like any college or police academy, you have to complete a "phys ed" credit, right? Friday afternoon we'll carpool to Craig's Cruisers—a local "family fun" park—for two rounds of LASER TAG and a GO-KART ride (great ways to practice your shooting and driving skills, Zebra3!). Plus everyone receives 20 video game credits AND lunch at their unlimited pizza, pasta, salad, soda, and dessert buffet!"
  • Photos and rides in Brit's Starsky & Hutch Torino.
  • Saturday night banquet dinner
  • Saturday night themed party, the Striped Tomato Awards, an ice cream creation from Cold Stone Creamery, along with special presentations, and an exclusive Starsky and Hutch banquet gift created just for Cabrillo Con 2011.

2013 Convention

Cabrillo Con 2013, July 25th - 28th in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

From its mailing list:

So, what is Cabrillo Con? It's a weekend-long celebration of everything Starsky & Hutch you won’t want to miss, and this Yahoo!group is for anyone interested in attending. Here you'll receive all the up-to-the-minute information about Con events, panels, and parties! It's also a great way to keep in touch with the friends you've made at the event and share your love for all things Starsky and Hutch.

Every two years we celebrate the special bond of friendship between the characters of “Starsky and Hutch” and the men who portrayed them. Perhaps that’s what first drew you into the S&H fandom. We know it was for us. Then—for many, years later—came the bond between friends who share that same love of the show, the fandom, and fanfiction. These became strong and important connections in our lives. Some of us have been fortunate to be able to gather with some of those friends and spend time together face-to-face, and enjoy each other’s company. There’s just something so liberating about being able to talk about “the guys,” or watch a treasured episode with someone who laughs and cries, right along side you. Somebody who, well…understands what Starsky and Hutch are all about.

And now, we’d like to offer you an opportunity to share in just such a weekend. What could be more fun than a gathering of fans and friends, celebrating the Starsky and Hutch friendship?

Once again, we've rented an entire movie theater to watch S&H episodes on the big screen! We'll also have all sorts of panels, games, events--and yes, Torino rides!--to round out an unforgettable weekend with other S&H friends.

Don't miss Cabrillo Con 2013: it begins the afternoon of Thursday, July 25 and runs through Sunday morning, July 28th! [2]

References

  1. ^ Cabrillo Con 2009 Event Photos, Archived version
  2. ^ "None". {{cite web}}: |archive-url= requires |archive-date= (help)
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